


Locked Up With A Spinning Wheel

by Rogue of Heart (Akumeoi)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Drabble, Gen, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2013-01-12
Packaged: 2018-10-18 13:33:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10617945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akumeoi/pseuds/Rogue%20of%20Heart
Summary: "Lady of Shalott" songfic about Calliope's death.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Alas, Past Me was not above writing songfic. This thing is frankly an embarrassment, but I haven't written anything else about Calliope so I felt obligated to repost it here.

_She's locked up with a spinning wheel  
She can't recall what it was like to feel_

In her very first memory, Callie knew she had been chained by the ankle. She didn't know what had happened before that or why she had been chained there; she had never known another living soul other than her brother, and she didn't even think he had a soul at all. 

When she was young she had deluded herself into thinking she could slip the ankle chain any time she wanted, but when she grew old enough to fully understand the situation she knew that doing so would be futile. 

The chain did not chafe or give her blisters, but she wished - she wished she could know what it was like to walk without hearing its jingling behind her, to be able to hop lightly over furniture and not have to clear the room to make a path for it, to be able to sit down any way she wanted without having to worry about sitting on it.

 _She says, 'This room's gonna be my grave_  
_And there is no one who can save me.'_

Calliborn was going to try to kill her soon, she knew. Maybe her last request could be to take a walk on the surface of her planet without the chain on. 

Yeah, like that would ever happen.

 _She sits down to her coloured thread_  
_She knows lovers waking up in their bed_

Her last request would have to be something she gave herself, and it would be a fanfiction, a neat room, and then a momentary stop outside before she went back to her sarswapagus for the last time. So she took up her coloured pens and decorated her treasured book with stories of herself, her fantroll, the twelve trolls and eight children of legend, and many, many ships.

Then she loaded and hung up her magic wand, checked on her treasured juju, and climbed the metal rungs on her wall and finally ascended out into the warm red daylight.

 _She says, 'How long can I live this way_  
_Is there no one I can pay to let me go?_  
_'Cause I'm half sick of shadows_  
_I wanna see the sky_  
_Everyone else can watch as the sun goes down_  
_So why can't I?_

The sky was closing in, the sun far too close, but it was all she'd ever known. The sun's red surface looked like a giant orange peel, pitted by insects and age, magnified hundreds of times, and glowing like a lump of charcoal all the while. It could die at any moment. But Callie was not afraid of that, for so could she. 

The desert's fine, powdery sand blew slowly over the dunes, but fortunately she was too high up for the soft breeze to cover her in dust. She wasn't sure if the sand was really red, or if it was just the sun's light that made it look that way. As if she were stranded in a field of her brother's blood. 

_And it's raining_  
_And the stars are falling from the sky_  
_And the wind_  
_And the wind I know it's cold_

At that thought, Callie shivered. She thought of the battle she would have soon and felt a lump of ice slide into her stomach. Her throat felt coated with dust and she had trouble swallowing. But she was prepared; she had done all she could. Even if she died, which she thought she would, she was ready. 

So, realizing it was time, she climbed back down to her waiting sarswapagus, chained her free leg, and lay down. As her eyes closed, her last waking, living thought was this: I hope I meet Roxy some day. 

_I've been waiting_  
_For the day I will surely die_  
_And it's here_

Then she was floating in the liquid space inside her head, the dark, empty cavern that she had to swim across, to the little island that her conscious slept on as her brother made his way to the shore of their mind and took their body. 

She could feel his presence as they passed each other, lightly brushing by. This was the only time she could see into his mind, and what she saw there froze the blood in her veins. He was at once alien and familiar, cruel and cowardly, selfish, controlling, and above all, angry. Just as she thought she had passed him, she felt him reach out and grab her neck, and then he started trying to choke the life out of her. 

No! She gasped for air and hit him with all her might, pushing back against his will with her own. His immaterial hands were prized away from her, and she heard him snarl, his voice echoing around the dark space like thunder. 

YOu. WILL DIE. SISTER NOT OF MINE.

Though he had lost the element of surprise, Caliborn was still determined to make good his threat, Calliope could feel that. He pressed down on her, using the full weight of his hatred, his greed, his sharp, bitter, terrible emotions. Now he was trying to smother her alive, and she would not let that happen, not for Roxy, not for Jane, not for Dirk and Jake, so she gathered the strength of her love and courage and pushed back. He would not- could not-

With a terrible jolt of fear, Calliope felt the weight upon her mind increase, pressing her down like an anvil on her forehead. Caliborn was bringing his anger to bear, and it was not just heavy, but burning, sharp, wicked, and vast. 

Stop - don't - I won't let yoU -  
Please - I can't...  
No...

 _And it's here for I've been told_  
_That I'll die before I'm old_  
_And the wind I know it's cold..._  



End file.
